Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 98345 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98345 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
She can’t punish me like she wants. This isn’t high school, and she’s not the principal. There’s no detention or suspension. There’s not even any company property she can seize in a final fit of rage. My laptop is my own. I guess I might have left some knickknacks in my cubicle in New York. Enjoy my mostly dried up highlighters and bent-up Post-it Notes, Gwen . . .
“You want to quit? Fine. Good luck, Casey. You’ll need it.”
Then she hangs up, but not in that fun way where you can hear the receiver slam down on the other end of the line. How unsatisfying to have to just jab that little red X. Oh well.
There. I’ve done it.
I’ve left my dead-end job, freed myself from my heavy fact-checking shackles.
Only . . . now what?
Chapter Twenty-One
CASEY
I cannot believe that it’s my seventh night of this cruise, and I’m only now finding out that the cool kids have been partying late into the night at La Dame this whole time! Apparently after their fancy French dinners, the place turns into a little nightclub. Excuse me? Left out much! (Never mind that I’ve been otherwise occupied, it still stings.)
Javier was the one to tell Sienna about it.
She let me in on the secret when she found me sitting in my desk chair, staring aimlessly at the wall. I told her about quitting Bon Voyage.
“Yes! Wonderful. About time, but”—she swirled her finger around my desk chair—“this is not what we’re doing. We need to celebrate!”
I’m here in La Dame with Sienna now. It’s the perfect setting for a bunch of rowdy folks because it’s a compact restaurant with tons of booths and sexy low lighting. Around thirty or forty people are all clustered together while the DJ from the pool blares some of the best music of my life.
It really feels like the gang’s all here. Bella, Jenna, and Avery are draped over a few of the Nat Geo guys. No shocker there. A few veterans from the New Yorker are breaking it down on the dance floor. A waiter, who’s undone most of the buttons on his La Dame uniform to reveal a seriously buff chest that could fit right in with the Magic Mike cast, is passing around a tray of shots like a badass, and I take one gladly before downing it in one go.
“I think I’m drunk!” I shout into Sienna’s face.
She laughs. “You’re definitely drunk!”
“Oh my god, I love this song!”
It’s a club remix of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody.”
“You already said that!”
“Cool! I have no recollection of that! Maybe I have amnesia!”
Sienna holds up my hand with its empty shot glass. “I think it’s just the alcohol!”
“Okay!” Then my eyes widen like I have a brilliant plan. “I think we should get more of it!”
“I think we should find a chair!”
“No! You pulled me out of a chair, remember? Back in my suite. I’m a free woman, Sienna. You can’t stop me!”
At this point, I think it seems like a perfect idea to climb on top of the nearest table and start singing along to the song. Does it take me two attempts to hoist myself up? Sure! Do I still get resounding cheers from the crowd once I turn and start shimmying my hips and singing to them? Ab-so-fucking-lutely!
And just as I finish the chorus, giving it everything I’ve got, I see Phillip near the front door of the restaurant, encircled in the light from the hallway. He’s just walked in, hands in his suit pockets, brow furrowed. Our eyes lock, and I can’t help a huge sappy smile from spreading across my face. I brace myself for more of that angry scowl, but he doesn’t seem annoyed that I’m up here, potentially damaging one of the tables in his fancy restaurant. He watches me dancing with humor in his gaze. Then he points to me and then points to the ground. The gesture is obvious: get down.
Instead, I beckon with my fingers, trying to draw him closer in time to the beat.
He shakes his head.
Phillip!
Fine.
I’ll just have to keep singing to him. And I do. Oh yes. That chorus is building again. Can you feel it, Phillip? The music? That longing I keep running from?
I shake my hips and lift my arms and feel the summer anthem like it’s a part of me. My eyes squeeze closed, and I smile, wishing Phillip would come away from the door and admonish me. Is he getting annoyed now? Wanting to drag me out of here?
But when I open my eyes again, he’s left his post. Alarmed, I find he’s weaving through the crowd, getting to me faster than I thought possible. His gaze never wavers. It’s like he’s on the hunt.
He slides past Sienna and Javier and the two guys standing directly in front of my table. I didn’t even realize they were there, but Phillip steps in front of them without even a passing glance.